Digital Gore - 85%

With one of the coolest album names ever, “Swamped in Gore”, an awesome album cover, and the first digital death metal album ever, this album displays simple but heavy as hell death metal.

Now, being the first of anything, there are bound to be flaws galore. And the production does have a few pretty significant flaws. Nothing that makes it unlistenable but flaws nonetheless. I’ll go over the positive aspects of the production: The guitars are really heavy, they are a little quiet and not quite as “in your face” as they could be but they still sound really good. Another positive are the drums. They sound amazing. No matter how fast they go, they are always at the front and are very loud and aggressive sounding. The vocals also sound really good on here. Now for the negatives: The bass is pretty much non-existent. It has a few standouts (Devourer of Souls) and if you listen REAL closely you can here a few clicks but pretty much not there. Everything could sound a bit louder and heavier but that pretty much sums up the negatives.

Now the songs are straight forward, simplified death metal. The riffs aren’t too complicated but they are insanely heavy and kind of catchy riffs. “Incinerated” is a good example of this, it starts with an insanely awesome blasting part and the catchy guitar riffs with the awesome vocals. It switches between the two and is easily one of the better songs on here. “Swamped in Gore” is a slower song with some very heavy riffs and an awesome chorus. “Devourer of Souls” has some of the best riffs on here and displays the bass with a few awesome stand outs.

One problem I see with this album is that there isn’t much variation as far as speed goes. It seems like it’s mostly mid-paced or blast beats. I kind of wish they would have incorporated some thrash in there but there isn’t much of it. The songs can be kind of long and because of the lack of variation, they can get tiring after a while. Although they lack variation, the songs can still be catchy so the songs don’t overstay their welcome for too long.

The lyrics on here are just flat out gross. Similar to what Cannibal Corpse writes about, just disgusting gore lyrics. Interesting to read because of how gross they are.

Overall, this is a good death metal album. It is a pretty much forgotten gem among the underground of the early death metal scene.

Best tracks – “Swamped in Gore”, “Incinerated”, and “Devourer of Souls”